Archive for September, 2012

Noon Tuesday —
Here’s a clip of Vince Lombardi expressing himself on the sidelines. It’s only 4 seconds long, so have fun with it — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbNidYYGjic
Coach Lombardi’s question is really buzzing around in my head today.

I only worked 12 fixed stations last night. 6 of the 18 contacts were with rovers. Thanks to AC9BJ and K9JK for going out.
I did hear others mention at least 4 calls that I could never locate. KO9A, KF8QL, N8XA and K9LQZ come to mind. Sorry if I missed anyone else.

Yes, weather and propagation was lousy. Rain and storms plagued Chicago-land, and were a factor in MI and IN, too. I realize this was a sprint, not a multi-band ARRL contest. All the same, the downward spiral continues with contest participation. I was using 2 different 144 antenna systems and 2 rigs, alternately calling in different directions. Call, tune from 144.180-.220, call again, call again, tune, then rotate another 20 degrees. Over and over. I was mostly calling on 144.190 and I called in all directions many times. I gave up at 9:45pm local, when I hadn’t heard a signal in 15 minutes. The only thing that was keeping me awake was gusty north winds rattling the shed.

You know how bad this sprint was? It was sooooo bad that I almost received more emails thanking me for sending out a reminder, versus working actual stations on the air. I did have the pleasure of working Mr. KC9UEA, who apparently stumbled into the sprint by coincidence. This 13 year-old ham has a nice write-up at qrz.com.

2pm Monday —
Wanted to make this post earlier…
Just got back from a visit to a new Doctor. No, nothing’s wrong, this is routine stuff. But goodness, it ended up taking over 2 hours to get a few stinking vials of my blood drawn. I was spoiled when I could drive 3 miles to my country doctor, who has stopped practicing. I’d go to her, maybe wait 5-10 minutes while she scrubbed up after tending to her animals. I’d get a quick stick, say “Thanks, Doc, take care and see you next year”. Back home in 30 minutes, tops. Someday when I’m old, youngsters will think I’m making that up.

Anyway, I wanted to make this post this morning, but got sidetracked and now it’s after 2pm.

In case anyone isn’t aware …
THE FALL 2-METER SPRINT IS TONIGHT — MONDAY — FROM 7-11PM IN YOUR LOCAL TIME ZONE.

I reminded all the Midwest/Great Lakes V/UHF clubs last week, and I’ve sent out email to my VHF lists in and near WI. Plus KA1ZE has featured this info prominently in his daily V/UHF newsletter (archives available at ka1ze.com). So the game is on. I’ll be out there tonight in the shed, playing radio. Hope to work many of you.

The other sprints are:
222 MHz, Tuesday, Sept. 25th, 7-11pm local time
902 and up, Saturday, Sept. 29th, 7am-1pm local time
432 MHz, Wednesday, Oct 3rd, 7-11pm local time

The 6 meter sprint was back in August. If you visit this website regularly, you knew that already.

7am Thur.
Just got done reviewing the ON4KST.com chat archives from last night. Now I have K8TQK’s list of check-ins. I also see that audio of K8TQK’s 144.252 net has been posted to ka1ze.com’s website.
K8TQK’s 144.252 net was very active. Sounds like conditions were pretty good, too. As mentioned above, there’s an audio file of last night’s net at this address: ftp://ftp.dxcc.com/Audio/ Once you’re there, you will see a few dozen goodies to enjoy. Looks like the 144.252 net audio is right in the middle, a 9/13/2012 entry made at 6:36am. I’m listening to it now, it’s a 39 minute file. Have to say, that was very enjoyable and educational for me, being able to listen to the Bob’s net.
K8TQK’s 20 check-ins last night to the 144.252 net were: VE3ZV EN92; WB8AUK EN80; N8AIA and N8WNA EN82; K8GDT EN91; VA3ELE and VE3VII FN03; N3ASE and AC3L/M FN00; W2UAD FN13; K1HTV FM18; AA4DD EM86; KY4MRG EM77; K1KC EM73; WA4REE EM65; KI4ROF EM55; WA9M and N8XA EM79; KD8LDX EN62 and W8MIL EN74.
When listening to Bob’s recording, I occasionally hear a computer-generated voice breaking in. Since K8TQK’s cannot see, I believe that must be some sort of typing/speech interface we occasionally hear in that file. Sounds to me like the voice confirms what he’s typing into the ON4KST.com chat. This is just a guess.

WB9LYH’s email regarding the 144.240 net said, “Tough to the east, but with help from N9OLT we were able to copy VE3ZV in EN92.”
Mark’s 20 check-ins were: N9OLT EN64; VE3ZV EN92; N8FR EN73; K9UHF, KC9HBO and K9CEG EN53; KD8LDX EN62; KC9AZ, KC9RIO, K9CCL and N9JBW EN61; K8TQK EM89; KC9CLM EN52; W0ANH EN47; N9ABF EN51; KA0FBJ and WA9BNZ EN40; N0IRS EM29; WB0YWW and KG0SJ EN22. Mark also noted that N9ABF made it with 25 watts and a loop antenna from Wheaton, IL. Not too shabby on what looks like about a 190-200 mile path.
Want to acknowledge a few new calls to the 144.240 net. Don’t think K9CEG has ever checked in before, hi Chris. This may not have been KD8LDX’s first time, but I know he’s newer to the weak-signal side of VHF, and also want to give Bryan props for getting on during the contest last weekend. N9ABF and KA0FBJ also look like new calls. Welcome. Never ceases to amaze me how many hams have gear for SSB/CW on 2m.

The late night surprise was W8MIL and N8DJB first hearing the WA1ZMS beacon out of FM07. This was about 10:50pm central. Over the course of 5 minutes or so, W8MIL (who’s in NW MI, EN74) said the FM07 beacon was building to S5 on a 545 mile path. Then after midnight, KN4SM in FM16 and KO4YC in FM17 started making contacts on various bands with W8MIL and N8DJB. N8DJB remarked, “I’m just fascinated that this (opening) is not showing on the map.”
The map he was referring to is undoubtedly this one: http://aprs.mountainlake.k12.mn.us/ I’m glad we have maps like this, to help us visually monitor band conditions in real time. But you know what? N8DJB is right. There are all kinds of smaller, unexplained openings that the map doesn’t catch. The best strategy for working more DX and new grids is to get on the air and call CQ. Don’t rely solely on a map to tell you when it’s a good time to play radio.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE 2M FALL SPRINT IS NEXT MONDAY, SEPT. 17TH, 7-11PM YOUR LOCAL TIME.
Help get the word out in your area. Full sprint info is 3 posts below this one.

Noon Wed.
Going to be a hot one today, well into the 80’s. Never know when the last 85 degree day will be. Here’s hoping it will do nice things for propagation tonight.
Been enjoying KA1ZE’s daily V/UHF newsletter. It’s amazing all the different nets there are. There are far more than I ever knew about. Many of these nets forward their check-in lists to the .205MorningReport. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, visit ka1ze.com and click on “Activity Newsletter Archives”. While you are at ka1ze.com, read “the letter from Stan regarding the mission of the .205MorningGroup” and then get hams in your area to get on in the mornings, and see if you can get your own 144.205 activity going. There’s no reason this concept couldn’t expand to include a large part of the USA and Canada.

I want to tell you about two Wednesday night nets I noticed in KA1ZE’s newsletter. Neither are close to WI, but I know we get readers in a wide area surrounding the Great Lakes, so a few of you might benefit from this info.

The east coast 70cm net has been on 432.090 since 1979. It’s from 9-10pm eastern time every Wed from EM95. Talking the Charlotte, NC area. When I started pondering how to improve V/UHF activity back about 2006/07, I somehow found the website associated with this net. http://www.w4dex.com/east_coast_70cm_net.htm I really, really enjoyed the old hand-typed newsletters from 1982. I bet many of you will also enjoy it.
I also thought that using internet/computer chat to connect the various check-ins was brilliant, especially on a band like 432, where the antennas are so pointy. Then I saw how they keep an online net log and I liked that, too, because it is motivating to see a list of hams that care enough to improve activity. Point is that right from the start, when I got rolling with the Wed. 2m nets up here, I was going to use some of the ideas I learned at the W4DEX website.
Especially if you live well east or southeast of WI, keep track of the 432.090 net out of EM95tg every Wed. night at 9pm eastern. Get logged into their system if you care to, and I bet someone will point a yagi right toward you. Kudos to W4DEX, W4VHH and W4NUS for running this net.
**ALSO REMEMBER THE N4PZ 432.100 ACTIVITY from EN52gb, Monday nights at 8pm central. Big signal from about an hour and a half west of Chicago. **

The other net I want to remind you about every Wed. is the 144.250 net from EM13, Decatur TX, about a half hour north of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. This is also at 9pm central, and W5FKN is net control. Reason I mention this net is that it’s active and well-attended, with good range. 18 check-ins on Sept. 6, and 2/3 of them are from 200-360 miles away.

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Our long-range net controls will be on again this week.
All licensed amateurs are welcome. These nets are informal; the purpose is to create more activity on 2m SSB/CW. Also to push the propagation limits. Both our net controls make 300-500+ mile contacts with modest to well-equipped stations. Please help us spread the word across a larger and larger area.
Wed. long-range net controls:
K8TQK on 144.252 (yes .252) at 0030Z, or 8:30pm eastern. Bob’s QTH is EM89je, which is south-central OH. Bob starts out calling CQ to his north, then steadily moves clockwise a full 360 over the next hour or so.
We also have WB9LYH on 144.240 at 0100Z, or 8pm central. Mark’s QTH is EN54cl, right in the middle of WI. Mark also starts out calling CQ to his north/northeast, then steadily moves clockwise a full 360 over the next hour or so.
Want more hints and tips about the Wed. nets? http://kc9bqa.com/?p=6173

Here’s a post that may interest some of you who want to know how these Wed. nets unfolded since we got started in June of 2008. http://kc9bqa.com/?p=5363 That post gives our history.

I originally made this post on August 8th, because the Fall 6m Sprint was held earlier this year, back on Sat. Aug. 11th. So while the 6m sprint has already happened, here’s the schedule for the other bands.

Go here for the full schedule and rules: http://www.svhfs.org/2012fallsprintrules.pdf
Other Fall Sprint dates are:
144 MHz – Monday, Sept. 17th, 2012, from 7-11pm in your local time zone.
222 MHz – Tuesday, Sept. 25th, 2012, from 7-11pm in your local time zone.
432 MHz – Wednesday, Oct. 3rd, 2012, from 7-11pm in your local time zone.
Microwave (900 MHz and Up) — EDIT, EDIT, EDIT – Got word that the Microwave sprint date has been moved up.
The new date for the microwave sprint is Sat., Sept. 29th, 2012, from 7am-1pm in your local time zone.
You can confirm the fall sprint dates for yourself here: http://www.svhfs.org/
Remember that 6-digit distance-based scoring will be used in the uWave sprint. See the rules link above.

Everything’s set up out here in the shed and it appears that everything works. Never know until you start running bands with someone. Last contest I was on for was the June ARRL. Had unexpected life stuff happen both with the July CQ WW VHF and the August UHF. Not really happy about that, but it happens.
What’s startling to me right now is that I’m not hearing any live signals on 2m. Usually at 1:00:00 at least a few pop up. I know 2m is working because the WD9BGA beacon out of EN53 on 144.297 is chirping away. It sounds a little weak today; with this weather pattern, propagation is not going to be good for this contest. Way too much cold air aloft for there to be enhancement. Perversely, it looks like the bands could improve by Monday or Tuesday, when southerly winds and warmer air starts to move back in.
Today is pleasant, 63-65, partly cloudy with scattered showers and perhaps a storm due in by late afternoon or evening. NW winds about 10-15. It was down to 49-50 this morning, after a rainy, cool Friday.
This contest for me is going to be a half effort, I’d say. September means my attention is divided because it’s the opening weekend of NFL season and I love sports in general, and yes, the Packers are a big deal. Even more so since my wife got interested about 20 years ago. We have a lot of fun with NFL Sundays.
So I expect to be around a fair amount today and hopefully some tomorrow morning. Several years ago, I’d have been more gung-ho, but I have seen a steady decline in contest activity in/near WI since 2010. 2009 was great — all sorts of new guys on, lots of promise. Look at the writeup I made about the July 2009 CQ WW VHF, for example. Two links actually. http://kc9bqa.com/?p=555 and http://kc9bqa.com/?p=565 At that time, I was well into the 2nd year of promoting V/UHF and in 2009, I really thought we were going places. It turns out 2009 was a high peak, and since then, it’s been getting quieter and quieter. Especially in 2011 and 2012. The only exception is the June contest, because many hams all across North America have been using the 50 MHz portion of their all-bands-in-one-box rigs and finding out how much fun the Magic Band is. The June contest is doing great. But the other ones, where you need widespread activity on 2m, 222 and 432? The trend is lower. Not a little bit — a lot. I wish I could explain it, but I cannot. I’m still promoting V/U contesting in my part of the world, I see others helping, too, but it’s not making a difference.

I will say something positive, LOL. Just picked up the mail an hour ago and I got my certificate from ARRL for last year’s Sept contest. WOW, are those nice looking certificates. I thought the old white/red ones were nice and appreciated those. But the new ones are just outstanding. Whoever was involved with that design process hit a home run, if you ask me.

2:15pm
There’s some activity out there. It’s not all bad. I’ve already learned that my 432 is OFF for this contest. Might actually be something with the rig, and not the antenna. But I’ve tried two options, antenna-wise and nothing doing. So I’ve shut down 432, lest I get irritated everytime I look at it.
Not thrilled to hear that the new noise I had this summer to the east is still there. It’s at least S3-5. Plus propagation must not be that great (it rarely is during midday, it’s almost always better in the evening, overnight and into early-mid morning) on the higher bands, because K8MD was not very strong on 222 and he always booms in.
Glad to find WA0VPJ/R roving WI. He’s doing an 8-grid rove, details of which he posted at the Google spreadsheet — 4 posts down.

4pm
Figured out a way to get on 432 — switched out a rig. Glad it’s not the antennas. I’ve had two separate problems last 3 years with the 432 stack and I sort of automatically assumed it was that again.

6pm
Disconnected everything a while ago. We have two areas of showers (with a few embedded t-storms) heading our way. Last Q’s were with W0UC in EN44, and we had plenty of lightning static on 6m between us. He said they had a storm earlier. If this is it for tonight, I will say the 902 contact with W0UC was one to be proud of. Stuck with it and heard each other come up on a day with so-so band conditions. Also worked W0VB in EN34 on the lower 4 bands and 432 took patience.

7am Sunday.
Back out in the shed. It’s down to 50 again this morning, but it’s going to be a sunny day. Interesting bank of clouds off to my east. Radar confirms they’re lake effect showers, about halfway across Lake MI, sliding south/southwest.
8:15 am
Good pace this morning. W9GA and I got our fair share of MI stations. WZ8T, K8MM, K8JA, N8AIA, VE3ZV, W8KX. (Worked K8MD y’day). Not great signals, but at least my bands are quiet this morning. Also been able to clean up with some guys I missed on 432 y’day afternoon. I have 76 total Q’s by now. Paper logging, so no idea about grids or score, but my score won’t be a factor this year.
11:50am
Well how ’bout that? Found a 2nd rover in this contest. W9II is roving in Metro Chicago, apparently. Heard Schiller Park. Had 3 bands, and a nice signal. Hope he has fun and goes out in future contests. Got into some EN50/51 contacts, too, now that my attention was directed south.
Now switching gears to the W and doing well with WA0VPJ/R who has a FB signal on his 4 bands from EN34. (I worked him in EN44 a few hours ago) Plus a big bonus with finding K0SIX in EN35. That’s exactly why I enjoy contests where there’s a rover in west-central WI, because of the potential for them to “open” a path between MN and SE WI.
EDIT — 8am Monday morning
Did want to mention 2 other rovers I heard about, but didn’t work. W0ZF and K0BBC were out in SW MN, or the EN14/15/25/24 vicinity. Also was told yesterday by a few IL stations that N0LNO was roving, presumably near his home grid of EN42. No real idea because I didn’t see any pre-contest info about his operation. BUT.. main point is that I wanted to give credit to those hams for going out and roving, like WA0VPJ did. Rovers do more to improve a V/U contest that anything else I can think of. We used to have as many as 5-8 workable rovers in a contest, and lately, we have one or two. I’ve had contests where rovers provided at least 40% of my total Q’s. And man are those contests fun — time just flies. Because there’s always something happening; someone to keep track of.

12:10pm Sunday —
Now it’s quiet again and oh yeah, both the Vikings and Bears games are at noon. Lions, too. Coincidence? Maybe, but I doubt it. I’m taking a football break this afternoon. Might be back this evening, we’ll see. There’s always a good burst of activity the last hour or two of the contest.

7am Monday
Never did get back out for the last few hours of the contest. See an ARRL soapbox comment from K2DRH that activity picked up at the end of the contest, toward 8-10pm (central time). My paper log is out in the shed, and I think I had about 100 contacts. I’ll probably do a complete rundown later today, and add it to the bottom of this (long) post.
I ended up having some fun this weekend, which I’m glad for. I find myself already looking forward to January, when the next big multi-band ARRL contest is. Talking about the ARRL Jan VHF, which is on the weekend of Jan 19-20, 2013. Make a commitment to get on and help improve contesting. Here’s the rules link: http://www.arrl.org/january-vhf
Last year’s January contest had a lot of interesting things happen, propagation-wise. I was sick that weekend, but just going off the top of my head, I believe there was an aurora opening, some tropo on higher bands and some E skip on 6m. Then life got complicated when a lot of WI stations had problems with freezing drizzle on Sunday creating high or unusuable SWR’s on their antennas. But I do remember reading a lot of post-contest reports about how interesting the band conditions were.
In fact, if you don’t already know about a few resources for reading contest wrap-ups, here you go: One is at the ARRL website: http://www.arrl.org/soapbox and another place that will already have contest reports coming in is: http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/3830/ Once you’re there, you have a variety of months and formats to choose from. Plus you need to realize that 95% of the traffic there is about HF contests. But if you keep poking around, you’ll find your way to the part of the September archives where the “ARRL Sept. VHF” reports start to filter in. In fact, I just figured out that if I go to a specific month (Sept. 2012, in this case) and sort the messages by subject, then I’m able to see all the ARRL Sept. VHF entries grouped together.

Plus if you belong to one of the Midwest V/UHF contest clubs, they have email reflectors which are active around contest time. Go check out www.badgercontesters.org if you’re in WI, far N ILL, far W MI, far NE IA or SE MN. www.nlrs.org is active in MN and www.w9smc.com serves IL and adjacent portions of S WI and E MO and IN. I am a BC’er and I always submit my contest scores with Badger Contesters listed as my club affiliation. I work a lot of MI/IN/OH stations in most contests, because I’m only 10 miles inland from the western Lake MI shoreline and I have a good horizon to my E and SE. But I’m unaware of any active V/UHF club in those states. If I’m wrong about that, someone please clue me in, and I’ll be happy to share the correct info here. Same deal with IA/MO and E NE. Those areas are workable for many of us in WI, but I’m unaware of any V/U club or email list off to my west or southwest. And I do get the sense that V/U activity is on an upswing in/around the Omaha/Lincoln, NE areas. W0HXL (who submitted a comment, click on the link in small print at the bottom of this post) has been keeping me up to date.

Like I said in the post below, by now (Sept 6, 2012) there’s 3321 registered users in the IARU Region 2 chat for 144-432 MHz at ON4KST.com. Back in early 2010, the room didn’t even exist. Long after I’m done promoting V/UHF, that chat room may end up being the thing I’m most proud of helping to create. KB9RDS was very helpful, too. And we’re all grateful to Alain — ON4KST — for listening to us and creating the room. Well honestly, for all the work that goes into the whole suite of ON4KST.com ham chats. If you’ve never taken the time to look around this free, no BS site, you should. There are so many active chats, on various ham bands, from across the world.
I was going back thru the kc9bqa.com archives from March, 2010, when this was all getting started. If you’re the type who likes a historical perspective, you might enjoy these posts from back then.
This post is from March 10, 2010, when I officially announce that the V/UHF chat for North America had been created: http://kc9bqa.com/?p=2170
This post is from March 12, 2010, and I talk about how important a ham chat room was to me when I was starting out in 2002/2003. I also share my goals and hopes for the new IARU Region 2 Chat for 144-432 MHz. http://kc9bqa.com/?p=2208

The 144-432 MHz chat room has activity every morning and evening. I’m sure weekends and some middays have some activity as well. If you want the 7 simple steps to get signed up, go to this post: http://kc9bqa.com/?p=1072

REMEMBER ARRL SEPT. VHF QSO PARTY IS THIS WEEKEND FROM 1PM SAT TO 10PM SUN, CENTRAL TIME. http://www.arrl.org/september-vhf
There’s plenty of contest rah-rah two posts below this one, and scattered across the last several weeks of posts.
Try this post http://kc9bqa.com/?p=6104 for more contest info. The VHF Contesting School articles are there.

7am Thur.
Another strong night for the long-range Wed. nets. Thanks everyone for getting on the air, and special thanks to K8TQK and WB9LYH for hosting the party every week. Good to see ON4KST.com ham chat room alive and well. (Choose the IARU Region 2 chat for 144-432 MHz) As of today, there’s 3321 registered users, total. Not bad, considering the room didn’t exist until March of 2010. Think I’ll do a separate post about the ON4KST.com chat, shortly after this one.

K8TQK’s 22 check-ins last night were: W8SAC EN80; WA8RJF, KC8YJB, NF8O and KD8FHY EN91; VE3ZV EN92; W2UAD FN13; AC3L FN00; AK4BM EM78; KB3TNZ FN10; W8BYA, W8ICU and KB8TDA EN70; WT8E, N8XA, W8WG and KD8HHG EM89; AA4DD EM86; KY4MRG EM77; K1KC EM73; KI4ROF EM55 and KC8TRL EN81.
A few observations — good to see multiple check-ins from EN70. I know that W8BYA has been a big help with getting more guys on weak-signal VHF, and getting them up to speed. Gedas has been doing this for several years now, and he’s a great ambassador.
I see multiple new calls in K8TQK’s net log from last night. That’s *exactly* what we want to see. Keep improving the numbers.
K1KC gets the informal DX award. Nice path — EM89 to EM73.

7:15am Wed.
Realize that storms will be affecting parts of MI/IN/IL tonight, but our net controls should be fine.
Wed. long-range net controls:
K8TQK on 144.252 (yes .252) at 0030Z, or 8:30pm eastern. Bob’s QTH is EM89je, which is south-central OH. Bob starts out calling CQ to his north, then steadily moves clockwise a full 360 over the next hour or so.
We also have WB9LYH on 144.240 at 0100Z, or 8pm central. Mark’s QTH is EN54cl, right in the middle of WI. Mark also starts out calling CQ to his north/northeast, then steadily moves clockwise a full 360 over the next hour or so.

I want to keep this announcement short so the QST about the ARRL Sept. VHF Contest this weekend stays near the top of the page. If you want contest info, it’s right below this post. If you want more Wed. night info, click on this link to last week’s announcement: http://kc9bqa.com/?p=6173

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